Grand jury may investigate pharmacy

Mar. 27, 2013

Written by

| From staff and wire reports

While Michigan’s attorney general took the first steps Tuesday toward launching a criminal investigation into the Massachusetts pharmaceutical company linked to a deadly outbreak of meningitis, Tennessee has not taken a similar action.

The attorney general in this state does not have the authority to request that the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation conduct a criminal probe concerning the contaminated steroid medicine, said agency spokeswoman Sharon Curtis-Flair.

Michigan and Tennessee are the two states hardest hit by the fungal meningitis outbreak, which has sickened 730 people with 51 deaths, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Fourteen deaths have occurred in each state, according to the CDC, but Michigan has reported more illnesses.

Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette filed a request with the Michigan Court of Appeals for a rare, four-county grand jury to conduct a probe into the New England Compounding Center, the company already sued in dozens of civil lawsuits.

If the court agrees to an investigation, a jury of citizens in one of the counties would decide if criminal charges should be brought.

“Michigan is at the epicenter of this national meningitis tragedy,” Schuette said during a news conference at his office in Lansing. “We will find the truth and bring to justice those who may have broken the law.”

The number of Michigan residents infected — 259 at last count — is “brutal,” he said.

A grand jury can subpoena witnesses and compel testimony under oath, while state investigators do not have that power. Schuette said a grand jury investigation could unlock the “secrecy” surrounding the company’s management, the Michigan facilities where the steroid shots were injected and the identity of specific individuals responsible.

No requests in TN

In Tennessee, a district attorney can launch a criminal probe. However, no one in Davidson County has requested such an inquiry, said Susan Niland, director of communications for the Davidson County District Attorney General. Typically, a victim of a criminal act or the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation will request a probe, she said.

“There have been no criminal complaints made to our office, nor have there been requests for investigations related to that,” Niland said.

In Michigan, Schuette said, it is a crime to knowingly or recklessly sell or manufacture an adulterated drug and that anyone convicted on that charge could face up to 15 years in prison.

In the petition to the appeals court, the state said there is probable cause to believe that New England Compounding distributed tainted drugs to Michigan counties and that it “knew or had reason to know that the adulterated drugs could cause great bodily harm or death.”

A message seeking comment was left Tuesday with a spokesman for the company based in Framingham, Mass.

Michigan’s criminal probe of the outbreak could be the first state-level investigation of its kind. Federal officials have opened a criminal probe into the company and its owner.

Schuette did not rule out approaching other states, though typically state attorneys general coordinate more on civil — not criminal — cases.

The outbreak of meningitis, an inflammation of the lining of the brain and spinal cord, was discovered in Tennessee in September. New England Compounding filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December.